Wareham boys volleyball back in business

Blessed with height (6-foot-7), soft hands and an ability to sky to the moon and back for a spike, some would say Quintin Silveira was made for volleyball.

Adam K. Ellis

Blessed with height (6-foot-7), soft hands and an ability to sky to the moon and back for a spike, some would say Quintin Silveira was made for volleyball.

That’s why when the prospect of seeing the sport fall victim to the difficulties of financial hardships, the thought of not participating in his favorite game was something the senior didn’t want to begin to comprehend.

So when Coach Ben Kaeterle began putting together the recipe for raising funds to potentially play – $2,800 – the senior captain did whatever he could to help make it happen.

“Ben really got us all going; he put it all together and gave us some direction,” Silveira said. “He began telling us (captains) what we needed to do and we just relayed that to the rest of the team and whoever else we could get to try and help.”

“At first, we started with a basic plan, which was just trying to do whatever we could,” Kaeterle explained. “I started a page on Facebook devoted to the cause and then began calling everybody – family, friends…community members – to see if they’d donate. But I knew that was only going to get us so far and I wanted the kids to be involved. We needed their efforts to help get us over the top.”

Joining the cause, Silveira and the remaining Vikings began selling cookies, held calendar raffles and organized a dinner at Red Robin that helped bring in roughly $1,000.

“That was huge,” Kaeterle said of the night out. “And more importantly, we brought them so much business, they said we can come back whenever we wanted to. That’s something that could be a big help to future fundraising efforts – something we’re going to need.”

The Red Robin outing put Wareham on a path to restore the volleyball program. Still, as February crept in and the team had yet to hear a word, uncertainly loomed.

“We didn’t find out until about three weeks or so ago that it was actually going to happen,” Silveira said with a wide-eyed grin. ““I was thinking I’m going to probably have to try out for baseball (laughs).”

“It was amazing; it was all I wanted,” Kaeterle expressed. “I played this game at New Bedford High for four years and I knew this is what I always wanted to do: give back. Growing up, my parents always helped coach me and that just sort of set the notion to give back.”

While the preseason victory was certainly welcome (an understatement if ever there was one), the late rally did not come free of repercussions, as a 13-game schedule reflects the difficulties of trying to schedule opponents late in the game.

“We didn’t have many options,” the Wareham coach explained. “So we’ve got some tough teams on our schedule like Brockton, Barnstable and Braintree, to name a few.”

But if Kaeterle is nervous about the prospects of playing schools that predominantly relish in Div. 1 and 2 sports, he wasn’t letting on.

“We played a lot of those teams tough last year,” Kaeterle said. “And while we might not won a game, we were in almost every match, where a bounce here or a bounce there could’ve made the difference. If we limit our mistakes a bit, we could turn some of those losses into wins this year.”

Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have another year of Silveira on the roster, the team’s leader in kills the past three seasons.

“Q”, as his friends refer to him, will make the shift from middle hitter to outside hitter this year in an attempt to reign down on his opponents with a bevy of slams and blocks from a different angle.

“The only thing better than killing the ball, is blocking someone – blocking someone that thinks they’re good too,” exclaimed the four-year letterer Silveira, who has also played football and basketball during his tenure at Wareham High. “You take the best hitter and block that ball, they’re scared of you for the rest of the game. It’s like when you block someone in basketball, they ain’t coming back in the paint.”

Such a confident mentality should suit the Vikings well as they attempt to entrust a copious amount of court minutes to a handful of young and inexperienced players – Silveira pegged as the only returning starter.

“We have a lot of freshmen that don’t even know the concept of the game,” said Kaeterle, who currently has enough players for a jayvee team but not enough money in the budget to play official games. In turn, they are trying to schedule coach-refereed scrimmages following their varsity games. “But I think that’s going to help the young kids pick their game up quickly. Playing with the older and more skilled players tends to have that effect.”

One player who has seen his ascent to the varsity level put on a fast track is junior Nate Chagnon. Chagnon drew the attention of the coaching staff and teammates as a member of the JV squad last year and was immediately placed in the future designs as a handful of seniors were lost to graduation.

Thus far, early results have been good for the third-year man who has developed quite a rapport with Silveira.

“We brought Nate up and we’re pleased with how he’s performed,” said Kaeterle, who named Chagnon as one of the team’s three captains. “He’s really gelled with Quintin. It’s looking like they could be a dangerous combination. And the scary thing is he’s really just starting to learn how to play alongside Quintin. I’ve told him, ‘(Silveira) can be in the back row, just throw it up there and let him go get it.’ ”

“After practices, I worked with Nate a bit last year,” added Silveira, complimenting Chagnon on his refined passing skills two weeks into camp. “You just sort of knew he was going to be up at the varsity level this year. I gotta give credit to him, he’s put in the work and it’s paid off.”

Senior Chris Wright joins the duo as tri-captains and will serve as the opposite hitter for the Vikings. Sophomore Steve Florindo received the call-up from jayvee and will serve as an outside hitter, while juniors Tom Winters and Larry Wright will man the middle.

Theodore Mathews rounds up the starting lineup, singing the song of the libero.

“We’re definitely a young team but we’re a hard working team,” Kaeterle said. “Our biggest goal is to make the tournament. Again, we didn’t win a game last year but we competed. If we can get a couple early, we might be able to reach that 7-7, 7-6 mark and make the tournament.”

Certainly postseason volleyball talk is welcome at Camp Viking. Then again, considering what they’ve been through, just playing the game might be enough.

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